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Thursday, September 30, 2010

Quincie Morris, teen restaurateur and neophyte vampire, is in the fight of her life —or undeath. Even as she adjusts to her new appetites, she must clear her best friend and true love — the hybrid-werewolf Kieren — of murder charges; thwart the apocalyptic ambitions of Bradley Sanguini, the seductive vampire-chef who “blessed” her; and keep her dead parents’ restaurant up and running. She hires a more homespun chef and adds the preternaturally beautiful Zachary to her wait staff. But with hundreds of new vampires on the rise and Bradley off assuming the powers of Dracula Prime, Zachary soon reveals his true nature — and his flaming sword — and they hit the road to staunch the bloodshed before it’s too late.

Even if they save the world, will there be time left to salvage Quincie’s soul?

The world of Tantalized and Eternal combine in Blessed to create an amazing story that is captivating. I loved both of the previous novels, but Blessed has blown them both out of the water. This is Cynthia at her best.

First off, I missed Quincie so I was very glad that I was able to reconnect with her in this novel. Some of the things that she says are so hilarious! I enjoyed hearing her witty remarks and observations again. Zachary remains the same old amazing Zachary. He is still courageous, bold, adorable, and still a rule bender. I love how he thinks (mostly) the best about Quincie and her soul. Kieren stole my heart again. He is such an intelligent heartthrob. Like Quinice says, "Damn. Smart was sexy." Cynthia did an excellent job at remaining true to the existing characters and introducing new ones.

One of my favorite aspects of this novel was how well she tied Bram Stoker's Dracula into the novel. It went very well with the story line, and I loved her twist on it. Very fresh and very unique.

Here is a snippet of Cynthia's Author's Bio:

"Cynthia Leitich Smith is the acclaimed YA author of TANTALIZE (2007), and its companions, ETERNAL (2009) and BLESSED (forthcoming), all Gothic fantasies from Candlewick Press. She also has written several YA short stories as well as books for younger readers. "